When a Mother Flees
I remember thinking “if only” — so many times during my child custody battle.
If only…I had unlimited resources.
If only…I had family in Canada, Mexico or anywhere else…anywhere but here.
If only…I could vanish and protect my babies.
If only…I was brave enough.
If only…I wouldn’t get caught.
If only…I could flee.
If only…
If only.
But I would read the stories of mothers who did flee - and I would feel envious but further paralyzed.
I knew it wasn’t my path - I also knew it wasn’t my place to judge.
Sarah Marie did flee…while I don’t personally know her or her whole story, I understand her battle cry.
I’d like to share some words from her mother — and then from Sarah Marie herself:
From Sarah Marie’s Mother:
Sarah Marie is my daughter and her children are my grandchildren. As a mother and grandmother, the abuse she and the children have suffered has been heartbreaking. His abuse of her started as psychological and progressed to more viscous verbal attacks, then increasingly violent physical attacks (resulting in ER visits, law enforcement and restraining orders), as well as sexual abuse. Abuse of children also started as increasingly frightening verbal abuse to terrifying physical abuse. My husband and I frequently spent time with the children and on visits to our home they disclosed numerous incidents to us from him hitting them, to being passed out drunk, to being left home alone by their father when they were 4 and 7 (when Sarah asked him to move out of the home and he moved into an apartment over a busy bar and nightclub).
Our family has depleted all of our resources and are now, in need of $16,500 to cover defense costs, civil actions regarding custody of her children and to pay an expert witness who is highly knowledgeable about the prevalence of abuse of protective mothers by the family court system.
We need your help and there are several ways to show your support.
1. Please contribute to Sarah’s GoFundMe to help her reunite with her children.
2. Contact D.A. Slattery at 207-324-8001 or email her at kmslattery@yorkcountymaine.gov and INSIST the state drop its case against my daughter and the boys mother.
The Story of Sarah Marie - written by Sarah Marie
“In January of 2020 I sat shackled in a sterile, windowless, and heavily guarded walls of the Canadian Immigration Facility where I had been granted asylum to the country of Canada due to the unjust persecution I had endured in my home county- The United States. Although I had been given legal sanctuary there, I had recently learned that my children, who had been separated from me in a violent raid, had been freighted back to the United States into the hands of their abusive father.
Mr. K, one of the head agents, sat across from me at well-worn table that was bolted to the floor, gripping his hands with a look of consternation on his face.
“Ms. Sherman”, he said, “you do understand what it means to waive your asylum? You do understand that if you waive your asylum that you are no longer under Canadian protection. If you sign this paper you will not legally be able to return to the country ever again.”
“Yes sir,” I replied, “I understand. I need to get back to fight for my children.”
As I lay in a frigid isolated jail cell awaiting my departure back to the state of Maine, memories of the last day with my children flooded my consciousness. I had maliciously and intentionally been placed by the guards in a freezing, uninsulated cell for days to break me. I tried to focus on my boy’s beautiful faces; felt my oldest son wrapping his arms around me and the smell of my youngest son’s hair and not on the visible breath that loitered and clung in the freezing air. Despite putting on all pairs of used orange county clothing and wrapping myself in the thin wool blanket that had been reluctantly provided to me, my body continued to shake violently and I wafted in and out of consciousness. How many more days would they keep me there? When would I see my boys? Who was going to help me fight for my civil and parental rights when I returned? Would he have hurt them again or worse-even killed one of them in one of his typical angry rages?
Back in Maine my court appointed lawyer (who is currently under investigation for fraud and did more harm to my case than good) rushed through the room making a brief and cold point of contact, before I was hurriedly pushed in front of the judge on a television screen to have my charges read. My legal representative notified that I was not allowed to return to my home or get my belongings. She then dropped a devastating blow; that the business I owned and operated (an integrated preschool for children with autism), had been awarded by a corrupt judge to the two people who abused my children and beat, strangled, and asphyxiated me on Mother’s Day 2018 while my boys watched only feet away. I was to be tried by the same system that had previously denied me a lawyer, denied my evidence, denied my testimony and even denied my witnesses. As I sat sobbing at the injustice of the system and its desire to punish protective mother’s, she informed me that the state had agreed to release me on the following conditions:
I was to have no type of contact with my children whatsoever.
I was not to enter my home state of Maine again, leaving me homeless on the street in the dead of winter.
That I would be shackled like some sort of monster to an electronic monitoring device (which ultimately resulted in permanent and painful nerve damage to my leg) to ensure that I would be prevented from entering Maine. Doing so would result in my immediate arrest and incarceration.
Post release I succumbed to a deep depression and despair of ever seeing my children again. My lawyer mocked and ridiculed me and refused to return my phone calls. COVID-19 ravaged the country making any chance of getting into a courtroom bleaker. Suffering from severe CPTSD, anxiety and depression due to years of crippling physical and emotional abuse at the hands of our abusers and the loss of my children, I pushed myself into television and literature to try and escape the tragedy my life had become. One of the program’s which captured my attention was a series based on a book from one of my favorite and incredibly talented authors, Margaret Atwood.
As I watched the “fictitious” story of June “Offred” and her plight unfold on the television, I felt her pain- the agonizing uncertainty of not knowing where your children were, if they were o.k, or if they were being mistreated. The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1995. Only when it was released as a television series in 2017, did this tale reach the masses; skyrocketed to the top of the Nielson ratings. While The Handmaid’s Tale was written about a fictitious, outlandish and dystopian society, the underpinnings of Atwood’s story forewarns us of a dark, bleak future for women where men rule with absolute right. However the tale also shows us the power of love and the unbreakable bonds between a mother and her children.
I was astounded at the congruences between June Osborne’s life and my own and the similarities of our struggles. How parallel her resolute and unwavering dedication to be reunited with the children that were stolen from her was; her strength and her will to overcome the tyranny despite the odds. As each season progressed the likenesses became too uncanny to ignore. I WAS June Osborne.
June Osborne and I were both victims of a corrupt, patriarchal, and misogynistic state where women are seen as fragile, tangible, and incapable of rational thought.
Our abusers were both high ranking military officials who used their positions of power to dominate and exert their will.
We were subjugated by our oppressors; our homes, careers, and lives were taken and given to those who abused us without due process: The state of Maine proceeded with a divorce hearing in my absence denying me of my witnesses, evidence, and testimony regarding the ongoing abuse.
We were forced to bear our violator’s names and give up our own identities.
June and I were both forcefully raped and beaten for not obeying commands- violated by men and assaulted by women (like Aunt Lydia), the flying monkeys who the men enlist to do their bidding.
She and I both had our two children torn from our arms to never be seen of or heard from again; our parental rights unjustly extinguished: Currently a PFA which I was never served legal notice of, is preventing me from having any contact with my children.
Our civil rights were violated. We were put in shackles, maimed, tortured, gagged, and banned from speaking the truth.
Both June and I escaped into the safety of Canada to claim asylum and our freedom in the province of Ontario.
We were both charged by our states for “crimes” committed in attempts to protect the children and are facing uncertain futures: I am currently facing 10 years in prison for allegedly abducting my own children (who I had primary custody of) to protect them from their dangerous and abusive father.
We waived our legal protection under the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, knowingly and willingly putting ourselves into peril, by crossing back over the border to fight for our families.
June and I both become martyred for our beliefs in equal rights and for our undying love for our children.
This gross violation of my civil rights, lack of equal protection of the law, discrimination of my gender and disability (acknowledged by the SSA), and failure of due process by multiple agencies has tragically kept me from seeing or even hearing from my children since December of 2019. Despite multiple filings and requests to acknowledge my parental rights and to be given due process, I have been threatened, mocked, and obstructed by the Maine state judicial system. U.S. Constitution, 14th Amdt. Sec. 1. Maine Constitution, Article I, Sec.1, and Article I, Sec. 6A, and Article I, Sec. 9. The state which has failed to uphold and honor their laws, the U.S. Constitution, or even a code of moral decency continues to tear families apart and further abuse the women and children they swore to protect.
I have been fighting ever since to be reunited with my children who I miss terribly. I fight with the resolve of Ms. Osborne and the will to help overturn the corrupt system that places innocent children back into the hands of their rapists and abusers. No matter how many times I have been beaten down I still stand up for truth, justice, and the persecuted. My story is fact, not fiction. Please help me in my conquest to clear my name for crimes I have allegedly committed and reunite with my children.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
I am June.”
